[PHOTO] Last Metropass line, November 2016, Eglinton station

Last night when I was at Eglinton station, I snapped a photo of the regular end-of-the-month line-up for a Metropass. It was a noteworthy moment for me because this is going to be the last such moment, with the transition in January 2017 to the reloadable Presto cards.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomy notes the discovery of massive ice deposits underneath Mars' Utopia Planitia.


• blogTO shares photos of what the new TTC buses will look like.


• Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly describes a lovely exhibition of the artifacts of the life of Charlotte Brontë in New York City.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to two papers on the detection of exomoons.


• Itching for Eestimaa notes how Estonia, despite wanting solitude and independence, keeps getting dragged into global geopolitics.


• Joe. My. God. notes Mike Pence's improbable arguments that he did not, in fact, support ex-gay conversion "therapy".


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes Castro's positive contributions to the fight against apartheid, and looks at the colonial booze trade.


• The LRB Blog looks at the economic incentives for prostitution in a time of austerity.


• The Map Room Blog maps the shifting and shrinking ice of the Arctic.


• Marginal Revolution links to an interview with an anthropologist who wonders about the knowledge of others that ubiquitous AI would allow. (The example given is of cows who can adjust their milking schedules.)


• THe NYRB Daily reflects on Cuba after Castro.


• Otto Pohl talks about the fate of Soviet Kurds under Stalin.


• Window on Eurasia argues the Soviet Union was falling apart and is skeptical of a Russian plan to create a hierarchy for Russia's Muslim populations.

[MUSIC] Annie Lennox, "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"

This Thursday, a [MUSIC] day, also happens to be World AIDS Day. My song choice was inevitable.

Watch on YouTube

I blogged Annie Lennox's cover of the Cole Porter song "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" back in January 2009. This cover, taken from the 1990 AIDS fundraising album Red Hot + Blue, is perhaps her most beautiful song. The sound of her full voice against the sparse piano and Paris cafe accordion sends chills down my spine. She evokes love and loss--of the epidemic, of the human condition in general--so superbly here she could make me cry.